Waiting for spontaneity: According to Vic Braden, The Inner Game of Tennis, “when our motive is the result, winning or losing, the brain reverts and recruits the muscles that it has used in the past.” I love the word “recruits” as he uses it here. It’s not a choice. We clutch, tense up, when our goal is more end than means. It’s a law. It’s the gospel of Alexander Technique. But there is good news. By waiting, we reclaim our spontaneity, a useful paradox. When we think of moving, our neuromuscular system sings, tunes our movement and tones it. Thinking before we move, gives us a moment to divest ourselves of habit and acquire better ones, more economical ones. It gives us a moment, many of them if you choose, to reinvent your self, spontaneous, free, a non-clutcher. Perhaps Milton was the first teacher of the Alexander Technique: “They also serve who only stand and wait.” Photograph: Sally McCoullough, model release, Shutterstock.
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